Ukraines security service raided the Kiev offices of Russias state-run RIA Novosti news agency and TV channel RT on Tuesday, detaining one journalist who they accused of treason. However, Lutsenko did not elaborate on the alleged evidence. For his work "in favor of the aggressor country in May 2014", the SBU alleged, Vyshynsky was awarded a medal by a private decree of the president of the Russian Federation.

The Kremlin said a raid conducted by Ukraine on the Kiev office of Russian news agency RIA Novosti is "outrageous and blatant", adding that Moscow awaits "harsh and uncompromising" response from global groups.

The SBU press secretary Olena Gitlianska said in a Facebook release that Ukrainian law enforcers have discovered a whole network of media structures controlled by Russian Federation.

The organization has previously reported on anti-press violations by both Ukraine and Russian Federation, and urges both sides to respect the role of a free and independent media, the release added. "The criminalization of alternative news and views has no place in a democratic Ukraine". "We are waiting for some statements by the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media [Harlem] Desir", Lavrov added.

"The SBU Security Service of Ukraine informs that Kirill Vyshinsky, the head of the anti-Ukrainian propagandist media organization RIA Novosti Ukraine, has been notified of charges with committing a crime and detained under Article 208 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine".

Ukraine's actions against RIA Novosti-Ukraine and Vyshynsky come amid tensions between Kiev and Moscow over Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea and its support of an armed separatist movement in eastern Ukraine that has claimed over 10,300 lives, according to the United Nations.

Kiev authorities regularly accuse Russia of using its public media, including television stations which are very popular in Russian-speaking regions of Ukraine, to encourage separatist sentiment and undermining confidence in the current pro-European government.